Video: Computerised bilingual IDs from Feb

25 January 2014 04:00 am Views - 6088

Commissioner General R.M.S. Sarath Kumara the Department of Registrations of Persons said steps were being taken to issue computerised bilingual identity cards to people from next month.

“This computerised ID cards is in use in most countries. We still issue hand-written IDs since we started issuing IDs in 1972. Use of human labour is prone to errors and shortcomings. The details of 20 million people have been recorded in 1,500 books and if an ID was to be reissued or renewed, we have to go through those past records in those books. It is also prone to malpractices,” Mr. Kumara said.

He said with the introduction of the new system, IDs would be printed in both Sinhala and Tamil which would be a solution to the language problem as well.
“In the new system, we scan all the applications we receive and the details are computarised after a verification process. And this will enable to print the IDs in both Sinhala and Tamil languages. This will provide a good service to the people,” he said.

Mr. Kumara said this new system would prevent forgeries and would lead to better coordination with other government departments.

He assured that the Department of Registrations of Persons was planning to issue electronic Identity cards according to international standards by 2016 to comply with the modern needs.(Ajith siriwardana and Indika Sri Aravinda)